The Food Resource

About this book

This wide ranging text examines global food supply and demand patterns, the development of food prices internationally and considers the institutional and physical factors affecting food production. A core text for students of development studies, resource management and agricultural geography.

Contents

Part 1 Themes and issues: the rise in productive capacity; visions of the future; concepts and approaches; role of resource development and management; volume organization. Part 2 Resources available for agriculture: agro-ecosystems; crop distribution; climate and crop productivity; soils for plant growth; comparisons of environmental quality; arable land and water resources. Part 3 Trends in world food production: growth of population and food production; changes in consumption, trade and nutrition; components of growth in agricultural production. Part 4 Prospective studies of food and agriculture: resource/ecological studies - Clark, Revelle and Buringh; socio-economic studies - Global 2000, Agriculture Towards 2000; resource-economic studies. Part 5 Population pressures and the demand for land resources: background on population and income growth; some implications for agriculture; competition for agricultural land; process of agricultural land conversion - United States, Canada, Britain; indirect effects of urbanization on agricultural lands. Part 6 Water resources and agriculture: irrigated lands; regional examples of supply/demand relations - Egypt, United States, India; ecological aspects of irrigation; human dimensions of irrigation; management issues - irrigation preformance, system design and operation, institutional control and decision making. Part 7 Land degradation: physical/biological loss - measures of soil erosion, regional estimates of soil erosion - North America, Asia, Africa, Tropical America, Soviet Union, causes of erosion and erosion effects, soil conservation; chemical change; desertification. Part 8 Climatic variations and food production relations: weather and climate; instability and change in climate; adaptability of agricultural systems. Part 9 Role of energy in agricultural development: energy relations, intensities and components of energy use; productivity/efficiency issues; supply/demand relations; yield response and productivity; environmental effects; energy alternatives - fertilizers, field operations, irrigation, pesticides, organic farming and intermediate technology. Part 10 Conclusions: challenges of the food problem; a synthesis of demand and supply relations; strategies for sustainable development.

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